Nokia N78 - Fugly Yet Functional
Nokia unveiled the N78 this morning and I threw up a little in my mouth. I personally think it’s one of the most hideous Nseries handsets to date, and that’s beating out the previous winner, the N91. However, looks aside, there’s several things about the N78 that I’m really pumped about seeing, so I’ll recap the specs for you.
- S60v3 Feature Pack 2
- Quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz) and dual-band HSDPA (900/2100MHz) or (850/1900MHz)
- WiFi
- 113mm x 49mm x 15.1mm (4.4″ x 1.9″ x 0.6″) compared to the N81’s 102mm x 50mm x 17.9mm
(4.0″ x 2.0″ x 0.7″) - 101.8g (3.6oz)
- 1200mAh battery
- Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR and A2DP, 3.5mm audio port
- 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and Carl Zeiss optics, secondary front-facing VGA cam for video calls
- AGPS (with automatic geotagging support)
- microUSB (no word on charging quite yet)
- 2.4″ QVGA display with 16m colors
- Naviwheel and FM Transmitter, for broadcasting tunes to any FM radio
- 70MB internal memory, microSD card slot
- XXXMB of RAM
- Comes in Aqua, White, or Brown
- Available Q2 2008 at EUR 350 ($510)
You can view the full datasheet for the Euro spec here (PDF warning) and the NAM spec here (PDF warning).
I want to say that I’m especially proud of Nokia for announcing the US 3G version at the same time as the Euro version. Regardless of when either one hits the market, I’m glad to at least know that they’ve been listening and decided to let us know about both versions at launch. Well played, Nokia, well played. I’m also glad to see new features, such as the FM Transmitter, being developed. That’s something that not many other phones have, and is a software feature that I’m sure many will use. It’s not the highest quality way to get music off your handset, but it’s one more way, showing that Nokia is serious about music and making sure that we have as many ways possible to enjoy that music.
The keypad design worries me tremendously. I simply can’t see that being functional in the real world, honestly. I’ll be anxious to see the reports from attendees as to how the Naviwheel functions. Is it throughout the entire UI this time, or like the N81, is it stunted?
Dotsisx’ Take
Agree with everything Ricky stated, except that I don’t find it all that nauseating. I won’t go and say that it’s a good looking device, but IMHO it’s not bad. Also I find it weird that it has a 1200mAh battery whereas the N96 with double the potential has a 950mAh, gotta give it to Nseries: they know how to make their strategies baffling!
It is really annoying to see that Nokia has screwed this device not giving a lens cover. And I hope the keypad functions well, and there are less typos. Except that, it is a really nice device.
I’m with Dotsisx on this one Ricky, it’s actually a really nice looking phone, very minimalist… granted, it’s not for everyone, but I think you’ll find that most people will like it looks. Oh, and the camera is surprisingly fast!
I too have to say that although my very fits reaction was “fugly!”, the looks are seriously and very rapidly growing on me. Very unique, simple, minimalistic, probably stands the test of time. I take this look any day over e.g. the over and over and over and over again the same design of SE… good to see Nokia still has the balls to do something different.
I like the look of that might have to add it to my wishlist
ricky, this thing has an accelerometer right?
does the n78 have the ngage engine?
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